SEO and Social Media: Getting Started

SEO [Search Engine Optimization] is more than writing keyword rich articles and hoping for the best when it comes to search engine rankings and increased site traffic. Keywords are important, but let's look at three ways to improve search engine rankings, site traffic and, consequently brand awareness by using some social media marketing techniques. There are many ways to improve the organic search rank of your URL/website; the three mentioned below are a good starting point for anyone interested in embracing the Web 2.0 generation. I'll list them first then go through each in more detail:

1.Social Media

2.Blogging

3.Disability Act: Section 508 Standards

Social Media

This is the next generation of the Internet or, Web 2.0. Social media encourages and facilitates creativity, collaboration and information sharing among users. There are a ton of options out there from vertical communities, which are industry or topic focused, to horizontal communities, which are more general, and everything in between. Let's look at some of the heavy-hitters: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Facebook was originally developed for and by Harvard College students in 2004 and was quickly catapulted to the forefront of the Web 2.0 generation; within a year it attracted over one million members (source: http://communittes.net). MySpace was launched in 2003 and is now a popular community for artists, bands and other creative types. MySpace, more so than Facebook, allows users to customize their profile page and backgrounds, which has resulted in a large following of youths and pre-teens. Facebook, however tends to attract college-educated users 20 and up. Both MySpace and Facebook give users a easy, non-committal, non-confrontational way to reconnect with people they may have lost touch with over the years and to keep on top of what everyone is doing day-to-day. LinkedIn is a vertically focused online community to highlight and discuss the professional careers, accomplishments and aspirations of its' members. It is quickly becoming a legitimate research tool during the interview process; companies and candidates can learn detailed information about each other before the face-to-face interview.

So, why is this important? It's important to know where your target audience is online. If you sell youth oriented products; MySpace should be a part of your social media marketing strategy. LinkedIn and Facebook are social networks you'd want to consider for educated consumers 20 years old and up.

Many companies, large and small, have tried valiantly to advertise their products in these mediums and many have failed. People use online communities to relax and discuss topics that interest them and have been largely unresponsive to hard-sell tactics (i.e. call-to-action messaging, coupons, etc.) of company advertisements. These tactics are for the masses and do not translate well in the smaller, more intimate settings of online communities. The companies that have been successful have followed a few simple rules of engagement: be succinct, transparent, responsive, accepting, insightful, genuine, humorous and timely. (source: The Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business by Paul Gillin)

If you, as a company or brand, reach out to people in these communities through a group page, application, fan page or the like, don't hide your identity. Instead, engage them in conversation about your products or services. You may be amazed at the amount of response you get. (Be prepared for negative feedback as well. Negative feedback should not be ignored and should be answered genuinely and openly, not defensively.) Companies should be engaging and fun in these mediums with a lighthearted approach; Victoria's Secrets PINK is a good example. With well over one million fans on Facebook and MySpace, Victoria's Secret has developed an exclusive community called "PINK Nation" where they promote their comfy collegiate collection and entertain their members with lighthearted polls, questions, horoscopes, webisodes, exclusive offers, freebies and inside scoop.

Victoria's Secret has leveraged these two platforms to help drive traffic to and from their sites by targeting a demographic that will continually attract new and loyal customers to their products: college women.

Another interesting facet of social media are the review sites such as Yelp!, TripAdvisor, StumbleUpon, Digg, del.icio.us and Sphinn. These sites have revolutionized the way Internet users locate and share information, stories, videos and just about anything else out there. These social bookmarking sites, by design, encourage and promote the most popular stories of the moment. Members can post and promote links by voting them up or down. Instead of a complicated algorithm, a user generated ranking system moves stories to the top of the results page as they generate more positive reviews, votes and/or 'diggs'. Usually the most interesting and/or timely content is pushed to the top of the list.

So, you can see how using these tools can help drive traffic to your site and increase brand awareness. Don't be shy, promote yourself on more than one social bookmarking site or try them all. Twitter can also be used to promote content; but the difference here is that it is not a collaborative environment. When using Twitter you're status update is a drop in the bucket, but it can be useful if your followers like what you have to say and decide to pass it along by 'retweeting' your message to their followers and so on. You can retweet your own messages too, but you'll gain more ground if others do it for you - so make sure your content is interesting, entertaining or at the very least amusing. If enough people retweet your message, your topic could become a trend and show up on the "Trending Topics" list that appears on everyone's Twitter page. The trick here is, your topic must be interesting to many people; so I would not use this as a primary resource for engaging communities.

Blogging

Bloggers are plentiful, you can be a blogger in a matter of minutes and begin typing away your keyword-rich articles to promote your brand, and it's a great way to start, but there are no guarantees that anyone will come. This is real life, not a Kevin Costner movie. In addition to starting a blog, seek out influential bloggers that repeatedly talk about your products or use the same keywords or 'tags' you would like to target and reach out to them. They may not even realize your product exists and may be glad to hear from you. You can use sites like http://wwwtechnorati.com to see who is blogging about your company, products or tags simply by using their search engine - it's almost too easy.

Let me be clear; I do not recommend barging onto someone's blog to ask for help promoting your products. Instead, read their last few blog entries and comment on them, give them a compliment or flattering statement and encourage a response. Flattery is like a Disney Silver Pass in the blogosphere and can help you gain a few good brand advocates. You'll want to be careful that you choose your advocates wisely, that's why I suggest reading their blog entries, comments and viewing their profiles and the profiles of their followers. Go ahead, click on any URLs your potential brand advocate references on their profile page and make sure they are dependable, ethical and likeable. Once you have confirmed all of this, then engage them in a conversation. If you can get a few bloggers with pre-existing networks to be your official brand advocates you're one step closer to increased site traffic, brand awareness and your ultimate goal of high search engine rankings.

Disability Act: Section 508 Standards

What has this got to do with social media and SEO? Stick with me for a minute; this is a lesser known, but very important strategy to improving natural or organic search engine rankings. It will also help millions of people with vision, hearing or motor skill impairments, who require the use of internet 'readers,' enjoy the full benefits of your site (you may even gain a few additional brand advocates this way!).

Simply put, Section 508 of the disabilities act helps to ensure everyone, despite disability, can enjoy the same online information easily. Many federal and educational websites are required to comply with Section 508 standards, but it is a good idea for anyone to implement these requirements since they will make your site easy for search engines to crawl, read and categorize. Some of the Section 508 requirements are: have text equivalents to all non-text elements on your site including multimedia, a design that does not need color, images or stylesheets to function properly, text-only alternatives to files that require a applet or plug-in to view or a direct link to access and download the applet or plugin and table rows and headers must be identified in the code. (For a complete list of Section 508 standards, please visit http://www.section508.gov) Incorporating these requirements will not only improve your search engine ranking it will also give many disabled users access to your site.

These techniques, if used properly, will help increase traffic to your site, awareness of your brand and your organic search engine ranking. It does not guarantee top placement on search engines, social bookmarking sites or increased sales. Web 2.0 is still evolving, but it is changing the way people communicate with each other and with brands. Don't you want to be a part of the conversation? I know I do.

Internet sources:

http://www.communittes.net

http://www.technorati.com

http://www.section508.gov

Book sources:

The Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business by Paul Gillin